Daphnis et Chloé by Marc Chagall
On Friday, June 30th, Christie’s London hosted a sale of impressionist and modern art, featuring a wide variety of works from Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot through Carlos Nadal and Charles Malle. Many of the lots were works by late-nineteenth and twentieth-century modernists, with four by Emil Nolde and Joan Miró, five by Salvador Dalí and Maurice Utrillo, and six by Maurice de Vlaminck. There were also twelve lots by the Russian-French painter Marc Chagall, one of which was a series of 42 lithographs. Entitled Daphnis et Chloé, Chagall executed the series between 1956 and 1961 and was valued between £700K to £1M by Christie’s specialists, making it the highest-valued lot in the sale. The series shows the story of Daphnis and Chloe, a Roman romance based on characters from Greek myth. Though the series fell slightly short of its minimum estimate, with the hammer coming down at £650K / $822.1K (or £819K / $1M w/p), it remained the most expensive lot in the sale. Six lots later, the painting Course de taureaux by Moïse Kisling came across the block. Christie's expected the bullfight scene to do well, so they displayed it directly behind the phone bank in the London saleroom. Like the Chagall series, the Kisling was highly-valued, estimated to sell between £400K and £600K. Also like the Chagall, momentum puttered out slightly before hitting the minimum estimate, selling for £375K / $474.3K (or £472.5K / $597.6K w/p).
Course de taureaux by Moïse Kisling
Four lots achieved the same third-place hammer price of £260K / $328.8K (or £327.6K / $414.3K w/p). Two lots were more works by Chagall, both featuring flowers alongside young couples. While Bouquet de fleurs et amoureux is oil paint on canvasboard created in 1978, Le bonheur du jeune couple aux fleurs is a gouache and ink work on paper made in 1967. While the former has a relatively short provenance, having only one owner after being purchased from the Marescalchi Gallery in Bologna, Italy, the gouache work is much more well-traveled. Since its creation, Le bonheur du jeune couple aux fleurs has been owned by galleries and collectors in France, the United States, and Sweden. The first and most recent time the painting sold at auction was when a Swedish collector sold it through the Uppsala Auktionskammare, where it sold for a hammer price of 3.1 million Swedish kronor, or about $300K. It seems its new owner was rushing to get rid of the painting since the Swedish auction only took place on May 11th of this year. Among the other £260K works was a charcoal and pastel drawing by Edgar Degas entitled Femme nue s'essuyant. The work last sold at Christie’s New York in 2010 for $320K, meaning the now-former owner lost about $60K due to having to pay the buyer’s premium thirteen years ago. The last of the four third-place works was a 30-inch-high bronze Rodin sculpture Eve, petit modèle, which, like the Degas, suffered a loss compared to the last time it sold at auction (back in 2016, Eve sold at Christie’s Paris for €575K, or $654.9K at the time).
Le bonheur du jeune couple aux fleurs by Marc Chagall
Despite its successes, the sale was bittersweet for Christie’s. With fifty-seven of the one hundred fifty-six available lots selling within estimate, the Christie’s specialists walked away with a 37% accuracy rate. Twenty-nine lots (19%) sold below their estimates, while twenty-one (13%) sold above. This left forty-nine lots (31%) unsold, including several highly-valued works. These included the Gustave Caillebotte seascape Les toits de l'Hôtel des Roches Noires, Trouville (est. £500K to £800K), the August Macke gouache and watercolor painting Nackte Mädchen in der Barke (est. £250K to £400K), and René Magritte’s portrait of Madeleine Goris (est. £180K to £250K). Because of the number and value of the lots bought in, the entire sale had a total hammer of £7.3M / $9.2M against a minimum total estimate of £10.5M.
Christie’s London Impressionist & Modern Art Sale
Daphnis et Chloé by Marc Chagall
On Friday, June 30th, Christie’s London hosted a sale of impressionist and modern art, featuring a wide variety of works from Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot through Carlos Nadal and Charles Malle. Many of the lots were works by late-nineteenth and twentieth-century modernists, with four by Emil Nolde and Joan Miró, five by Salvador Dalí and Maurice Utrillo, and six by Maurice de Vlaminck. There were also twelve lots by the Russian-French painter Marc Chagall, one of which was a series of 42 lithographs. Entitled Daphnis et Chloé, Chagall executed the series between 1956 and 1961 and was valued between £700K to £1M by Christie’s specialists, making it the highest-valued lot in the sale. The series shows the story of Daphnis and Chloe, a Roman romance based on characters from Greek myth. Though the series fell slightly short of its minimum estimate, with the hammer coming down at £650K / $822.1K (or £819K / $1M w/p), it remained the most expensive lot in the sale. Six lots later, the painting Course de taureaux by Moïse Kisling came across the block. Christie's expected the bullfight scene to do well, so they displayed it directly behind the phone bank in the London saleroom. Like the Chagall series, the Kisling was highly-valued, estimated to sell between £400K and £600K. Also like the Chagall, momentum puttered out slightly before hitting the minimum estimate, selling for £375K / $474.3K (or £472.5K / $597.6K w/p).
Course de taureaux by Moïse Kisling
Four lots achieved the same third-place hammer price of £260K / $328.8K (or £327.6K / $414.3K w/p). Two lots were more works by Chagall, both featuring flowers alongside young couples. While Bouquet de fleurs et amoureux is oil paint on canvasboard created in 1978, Le bonheur du jeune couple aux fleurs is a gouache and ink work on paper made in 1967. While the former has a relatively short provenance, having only one owner after being purchased from the Marescalchi Gallery in Bologna, Italy, the gouache work is much more well-traveled. Since its creation, Le bonheur du jeune couple aux fleurs has been owned by galleries and collectors in France, the United States, and Sweden. The first and most recent time the painting sold at auction was when a Swedish collector sold it through the Uppsala Auktionskammare, where it sold for a hammer price of 3.1 million Swedish kronor, or about $300K. It seems its new owner was rushing to get rid of the painting since the Swedish auction only took place on May 11th of this year. Among the other £260K works was a charcoal and pastel drawing by Edgar Degas entitled Femme nue s'essuyant. The work last sold at Christie’s New York in 2010 for $320K, meaning the now-former owner lost about $60K due to having to pay the buyer’s premium thirteen years ago. The last of the four third-place works was a 30-inch-high bronze Rodin sculpture Eve, petit modèle, which, like the Degas, suffered a loss compared to the last time it sold at auction (back in 2016, Eve sold at Christie’s Paris for €575K, or $654.9K at the time).
Le bonheur du jeune couple aux fleurs by Marc Chagall
Despite its successes, the sale was bittersweet for Christie’s. With fifty-seven of the one hundred fifty-six available lots selling within estimate, the Christie’s specialists walked away with a 37% accuracy rate. Twenty-nine lots (19%) sold below their estimates, while twenty-one (13%) sold above. This left forty-nine lots (31%) unsold, including several highly-valued works. These included the Gustave Caillebotte seascape Les toits de l'Hôtel des Roches Noires, Trouville (est. £500K to £800K), the August Macke gouache and watercolor painting Nackte Mädchen in der Barke (est. £250K to £400K), and René Magritte’s portrait of Madeleine Goris (est. £180K to £250K). Because of the number and value of the lots bought in, the entire sale had a total hammer of £7.3M / $9.2M against a minimum total estimate of £10.5M.